Assimilate, Replicate, Integrate

Classic writing advice is to read. Ok. But why? Everything should have a purpose, so it should be explainable. Ultimately, it should be to discover your style. But, since some authors' writing styles may be rejected outright, it is not an end in itself.  Reading is the first step in a multistage process.

When you read, you will get a feel for an author's style. There will be certain nuances - word choice, phrasing, subjects of focus - which you will pick up on. This is the first step: assimilation. Being aware of a writing style in the first place is necessary to be able to do anything with it.

The second step is replication. In this stage, you are tasked with creating the actual style that you have assimilated. This is actually a very fun writing exercise. It is potentially more challenging than it looks.  Take a book or some piece of writing. Find a small passage from it, then imitate it. Write a new, unique passage, but one in the same style as the original. The goal is to make them be so exact that a reader could not tell which one was the imitation.

The final step is to integrate, not imitate. Here, you take that style, shuck away unappealing aspects to it, and implement the rest into your own style. Although this sounds a lot like replication, the important part is balance. You do not take one author's style and make it your own. You take dozen's of author's styles. You will never use just one style for your work. You will switch between them all. Over time, they will blend seamlessly into a single entity, and that entity is your writing style.